16 Wrestlers Who Must Feature In WWE's Crown Jewel World Cup

Crown Jewel’s Rimet will be gleaming.

by WhatCulture
WWE World Cup
WWE

At time of writing, details on the first ever World Cup of professional wrestling— WCPW did it in 2017, but honesty never stopped WWE before—are scarce.

WWE won’t mirror football’s World Cup format, we can infer that much. It’s not practical, there aren’t 32 separate nationalities within even WWE’s bloated roster, and the introduction of VAR technology this year mitigated embarrassment on behalf of the referees. WWE portrays its referees as gibbering buffoons because their buffoonery acts as a convenient excuse to drag out storylines. Just ask AJ Styles, about five times.

But the old 16-team Euros model modified to a single-elimination tournament…?

16. India - Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal
WWE.com

Say what you like about Jinder Mahal, or Jinder Mahal's ability, or Jinder Mahal's veins, or Jinder Mahal's heavily aggressive nipples, but you cannot dispute the facts. He is a former WWE Champion, and former WWE Champions carry with them a certain pedigree.

If WWE wish to position this tournament as more than "look, here are 15 foreign people we're going to job out to an American" then they need to present as many of the entrants as possible as genuine contenders to win it. For some of them that'll be because they're genuinely great wrestlers who could use this tournament as their breakout moment, but others can be simply be because WWE have a horrible habit of booking them strongly.

Jinder is a) billed from a foreign country and b) someone they've stupidly had win things before. He's a shoe-in.

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Contributor

Articles published under the WhatCulture name denote collective efforts of a number of our writers, both past and present.

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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!